Ladydrawers: Thin Line Between Garment and Sex "Trades"

In the latest Ladydrawers, Anne Elizabeth Moore visits an NGO in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, aiming to help women escape the sex trade. For the next few strips, we'll look at how the expanding field of organizations intending to stop human trafficking operates.

But the garment trade is so pervasive in certain regions of the world it's often one of the only options for women with families to care for - or their own rent and food to cover. That is, the only regulated option. The sex trade employs women in many of the same areas of the world, despite the concerted efforts of anti-human trafficking NGOs. With growing budgets - and often confused logic - such NGOs aim to rid the world of sexual exploitation by offering sex workers alternative skills and employment options. For workers who already left factory life, however, things seem pretty familiar.

In January, Anne Elizabeth Moore visited one such NGO in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. For the next few strips, we'll look at how the expanding field of organizations intending to stop human trafficking operates, receives funding, and shapes our understanding of the global economy and women's roles in it. As always, our previous strips can be found here.

Anne Elizabeth Moore is a cultural critic and author of several award-winning, best-selling nonfiction books including Unmarketable (The New Press) and Cambodian Grrrl (Cantankerous Titles). She is a Fulbright scholar, a USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellow, and is the recipient of a 2016 Write A House Fellowship in Detroit. Her work has appeared in The Baffler, Al Jazeera, Salon, The Onion, Talking Points Memo, Wilson Quarterly, Tin House, and in international art exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial and a solo show at the MCA Chicago. She has appeared on CNN, NPR, Voice of America, and in The New York Times, among others. Her most recent book, from Curbside Splendor, is Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes.

Melissa Gira Grant is a writer who tells true stories about the value of sex. She has contributed to The Nation, Wired, the Guardian, Jacobin, Reason, Glamour, Slate, Jezebel, Rhizome, AlterNet, Truthout and $pread, among others. Her first book, Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work, is out now from Verso. Find out more at melissagiragrant.com.

A member of Brooklyn's Hypothetical Island cartooning studio, Ellen Lindner has created stories for a wide range of anthologies, agencies and publications. Her current web series, "The Black Feather Falls," a mystery set in 1920s London, appears weekly on Act-i-Vate. The first two print collections are available now from Soaring Penguin Press. Ellen is also the editor of The Strumpet, a transatlantic collection of cartooning by ladies. For more of her work, check out littlewhitebird.com or her Etsy.

Ladydrawers: Thin Line Between Garment and Sex "Trades"

In the latest Ladydrawers, Anne Elizabeth Moore visits an NGO in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, aiming to help women escape the sex trade. For the next few strips, we'll look at how the expanding field of organizations intending to stop human trafficking operates.

But the garment trade is so pervasive in certain regions of the world it's often one of the only options for women with families to care for - or their own rent and food to cover. That is, the only regulated option. The sex trade employs women in many of the same areas of the world, despite the concerted efforts of anti-human trafficking NGOs. With growing budgets - and often confused logic - such NGOs aim to rid the world of sexual exploitation by offering sex workers alternative skills and employment options. For workers who already left factory life, however, things seem pretty familiar.

In January, Anne Elizabeth Moore visited one such NGO in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. For the next few strips, we'll look at how the expanding field of organizations intending to stop human trafficking operates, receives funding, and shapes our understanding of the global economy and women's roles in it. As always, our previous strips can be found here.

Anne Elizabeth Moore is a cultural critic and author of several award-winning, best-selling nonfiction books including Unmarketable (The New Press) and Cambodian Grrrl (Cantankerous Titles). She is a Fulbright scholar, a USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellow, and is the recipient of a 2016 Write A House Fellowship in Detroit. Her work has appeared in The Baffler, Al Jazeera, Salon, The Onion, Talking Points Memo, Wilson Quarterly, Tin House, and in international art exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial and a solo show at the MCA Chicago. She has appeared on CNN, NPR, Voice of America, and in The New York Times, among others. Her most recent book, from Curbside Splendor, is Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes.

Melissa Gira Grant is a writer who tells true stories about the value of sex. She has contributed to The Nation, Wired, the Guardian, Jacobin, Reason, Glamour, Slate, Jezebel, Rhizome, AlterNet, Truthout and $pread, among others. Her first book, Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work, is out now from Verso. Find out more at melissagiragrant.com.

A member of Brooklyn's Hypothetical Island cartooning studio, Ellen Lindner has created stories for a wide range of anthologies, agencies and publications. Her current web series, "The Black Feather Falls," a mystery set in 1920s London, appears weekly on Act-i-Vate. The first two print collections are available now from Soaring Penguin Press. Ellen is also the editor of The Strumpet, a transatlantic collection of cartooning by ladies. For more of her work, check out littlewhitebird.com or her Etsy.